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The Wandering Earth (Liú Làng Dì Qiú)

2019 · 125 min · movie
⭐ 5.9 (39,578 votes)

In the year 2058, an anomalously expanding red giant Sun threatens to engulf the Earth within 100 years. Under a world government, humanity has constructed 10,000 enormous fusion-powered "Earth Engines" to thrust Earth out of the Solar System and move it into a new orbit around Alpha Centauri. Before his mission aboard the Navigation Platform International Space Station, Chinese astronaut Liu Peiqiang leaves his son Qi in the care of his father-in-law Han Zi'ang. Half of humanity, mostly chosen by lottery, moves underground; the others die from the cold and cataclysms resulting from the halt of the Earth's rotation as the planet is thrust out of its orbit around the Sun.

Seventeen years later, Peiqiang is about to return to Earth after the Chinese New Year. Qi, now an adult, obtains fake IDs and stolen thermal suits from criminal gangs and uses his grandfather's clearance pass to bring his foster sister, Han Duoduo, to tour the surface. Both are arrested at a checkpoint and meet another prisoner, Tim. Zi'ang is also arrested as he attempts to bribe for his grandchildren's release. As Earth approaches its gravity assist around Jupiter, a gravitation spike from Jupiter causes devastating earthquakes that disable many Earth Engines and sets the planet on a collision course with Jupiter.

The four escape in the collapse and attempt to make their way to another underground city, but their truck is requisitioned for an emergency mission led by Captain Wang Lei to transport a Lighter Core to restart an Earth Engine in Hangzhou. In the frozen ruins of Shanghai, they lose their vehicle while transporting the component up the ruins of the Shanghai Tower, where Han Zi'ang freezes to death. After confronting the other rescue team members, Qi, Tim and Han Duoduo abandon the mission. The trio come upon a crashed cargo plane with an intact vehicle, where the surviving engineer aboard, Li Yiyi, eventually convinces them to transport another Lighter Core to repair the Earth Engine in Sulawesi, reconciling with the other members on the way.

Aboard the space station, Peiqiang discovers that MOSS, the station's computer commander, has decided to abandon Earth and repurpose the station as an interstellar ark to seed a new planet with Earth's biosphere. Breaking out of forced hibernation, he is joined by fellow Russian cosmonaut Maxim Makarov, whom MOSS awakens to stop Liu. While spacewalking, Makarov is killed by the spacecraft's automated security measures. Liu enters the control room, but his attempts to override the evacuation procedures are revoked. Qi's group arrives at the Sulawesi Supply Depot to find that, while most engines around the planet have been restored, the combined thrust is insufficient to divert Earth's trajectory as it approaches Jupiter's Roche limit. MOSS broadcasts a final message to the world, but Peiqiang refuses to follow the computer's instructions.

As Jupiter begins to siphon Earth's atmosphere, Qi proposes to ignite the oxygenated mixture of the two planets’ gases, which will cause a shockwave to knock Earth back into its regular path away from Jupiter. Yiyi configures the Sulawesi engine to fire a plasma beam tall enough to ignite Jupiter, but the group is unable to push the firing pin and ignite the engine. Contacted by Duoduo, Peiqiang is able to persuade the UEG to use its communication channels to call assistance for the party at Sulawesi despite MOSS' doubts. While other rescue parties manage to ignite multiple engines, they are unable to ignite the hydrogen. After starting a fire to disable MOSS, Peiqiang pilots the space station into the plasma jet, tearfully apologizing to his son for breaking his promise to return before sacrificing himself to ignite the mix of atmospheres. The subsequent explosion narrowly saves Earth from destruction.

Three years later, Qi, Duoduo, and Yiyi work as truck operators, as Earth continues towards the Alpha Centauri star system.

Directed by

Frant Gwo

Starring

Wu Jing
Qu Chuxiao
Ng Man-tat
Zhao Jinmai
Mike Sui
Lei Jiayin
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